Trapped
by Black Hole
Summary: I can't do summaries but here we go: Max is trapped in Manticore, and starting the rerogramming. This may turn out to be a Max / Zack relationship - but as yet I'm not _completely_ sure


Title: Trapped

Title: Trapped 

Author: Black Hole

Rating: PG-13 – Because of some swearing – but if you watch the show – it shouldn't be a shock to you.

Spoilers: Post-Ep for AJBAC

Summary: Max is now trapped in Manticore, I can't do summaries, and is beginning the reprogramming.

Pairings: Max/Zack it appears to be.

Disclaimer: The show and characters do not belong to me. It belongs to some people from Fox or whatever e.g. Cameron and Eglee

Sometimes I feel as if I am trapped. I know I'm trapped physically, but emotionally and mentally…trapped. There is just no other way of expressing it – trapped is the only word that comes to mind that can fully, or at least partly describe the situation with which I am stuck with now. Trapped in Manticore.

At Manticore, it is a definite weakness to show any form of emotion, you cannot cry, cannot show love or compassion or mercy. At Manticore, all there is and all there ever will be is hate and orders and death. Nothing good is able to come from a place named after one of the scariest mythical creatures.

Brin, Ben, Tinga, and now Zack. It was just too many in too little time. We're all dying and being killed off, recaptured and reprogrammed, committing suicide for another, sometimes I can't take it anymore. I try to think about the people who have it worse off than me – if there are any people like that, then I'd like to know about because I can't imagine there being any. Anything is better than having a secret government agency up your ass, anything is better than having siblings dying beside you, anything is better than being trapped – trapped in a dull grey cell, waiting for even more scientists to use you as their human, no superhuman guinea-pigs.

How could Manticore have survived, why does it still exist after the DNA labs were blown to pieces? I suppose that they may have had 'back up' DNA samples in the basement or something. I really just don't understand why I am still alive. Why did Zack have to sacrifice his life for mine? I wasn't worth it. I spent every chance I had to disobey his orders, yet he still willingly gave his life for mine. He loved me – but I never told him that I loved him back. I never told him that I did feel more for him than just sisterly love – hell, we weren't even really siblings. I hid behind Logan because I did not want to face the truth, I did not want to admit to myself my true emotions…and now it's too late. Too late to tell him I love him, that I never really loved Logan – he was my best friend, but never anything more…he was my one and only chance to cling to a normal life because Zack reminded too much of Manticore and rules and order that I thought I had left behind long ago. But now it's too late. Too late. In your honour, Zack, I'll fight Manticore.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Brin entered. What a surprise…I thought that I had killed her, cuffing her to the bars during the explosion, it rocked the whole of Manticore, cracks in the plaster still show through on the walls.

'Baby sister?' she said in an enquiring voice.

'Brin' I replied. I could almost feel the cold stare that I was throwing her way and almost felt sorry for her…almost.

'It's time for your retraining X5-452' back into the soldierly tone and posture.

'Max' I looked at Brin, my voice hard 'My name is Max' I explained further.

Brin just looked at me, turned and started to lead me out of my cell.

'Come on then…Max' She added, already halfway out of the door. 

I followed her up the flights of stairs, wondering what my retraining may include. We journeyed through narrow corridors; memories from long ago of children dressed identically, one pace at a time, simultaneously, left, right, left, right in neat and orderly rows. Brin lead me to an office, situated further from any other part of the Manticore complex, a large room with a single occupant other than Brin and myself, that bitch Renfro.

'Ah! I've been awaiting your return to Manticore for a long time, X5-452' she said, fluttering those annoying eyelashes of hers. I could imagine myself pulling them out all individually for torture.

'Oh, I bet you have.' I replied. I couldn't think of much to say to a woman whom I knew that I had to say much to.

'It is now time for your retaining and reprogramming, X5-452. You know that you missed much of essential training, out on the field, but your little excursion has taught you more than you would have outside of Manticore, and you can always catch up on training at a later time.'

I wished that I could have killed her right then and there. I would have liked nothing better than to have strangled her to death, no, maybe something slower, so she could suffer at least a little of the pain that we go through every time we have a seizure or mating cycle. I would kill her if it wasn't for Brin, demoted to her personal bodyguard, and those damn drugs they pumped into my system.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Blue mats in a white walled room. Too many memories flooded back into my head, we had been commanded to punch the air, elbow up, parallel to the wrist, shouting out as we did so. Then we progressed to duel with each other. We all had our strengths and our weaknesses. Jondy was the fast one, Zack could pack a punch, and Krit was the one who could anticipate anyone's move, they were all the best. Now I was being forced into combat with my X7 clone. It was all relatively even, mostly all punches and kicks thrown at each other were blocked, but those that did get through, caused a lot of damage to the opponent. I soon saw a flaw in the X7's moves; they were predictable, using Manticore's basic combat training technique. I decided to add in a few of the street fighting moves I had learnt outside of the walls of the complex, the X7 started to panic slightly as she did not understand any of patterns I was using. The X7 was quickly defeated, lying on her back staring up at me with emotionless eyes, Renfro applauded. I hated dancing for that cow.

'I told you that your time out in the field was invaluable to your learning. As a result you have beaten yourself, two generations ahead, you should be proud, that is quite an achievement!'

I gave her an icy glare in return and Renfro commanded that I follow her. I would not have easily complied had Brin not been there, backing her up – does she ever leave the side of that bitch?

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

I was lead to a room and strapped down to an examination table. A man in an overall came over with a sorry look in his eyes and injected me with some substance that seemed to take effect immediately as I became less aware of my surroundings, and unable to break from the restraints.

A screen was placed in front of me, words like 'vermin' and 'rat' flashed upon the canvas along with the pictures of the rogue X5s, Syl, Krit, Zane, Jondy and the others all passed by my eyes as I remembered Zack's last words to me 'Fight them Maxie, promise me you'll fight them'. I promised him that I would. I didn't listen to or watch any of the untruths before my eyes, before I needn't endure it any longer, the screen went blank and some guards came to place me back in my cell.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

'Why do you believe her Brin?'

'Why not? You are the traitor if I am not mistaken, not her.'

'But she killed our sister Brin. She killed Tinga.' I pleaded with Brin but she just did not listen to what I had to say.

'She did not kill our sister, Maxie. Lydecker killed Tinga when Renfro was trying to cure her of a genetic illness…'

'You just don't understand do you Brin? Renfro killed Tinga, otherwise, why would we join with Lydecker to take Manticore down? If he killed Tinga, then we wouldn't be around him, waiting for him to turn his back on us.'

'Renfro would have no reason to kill an X5 - they are very valuable resources to her, she would never lie to us about Tinga's death and I suspect that you are only trying to plead with me to get me to side with you and aid in your escape.'

With that Brin stormed out of the cell and left me locked in, alone once more. There's absolutely no use in me trying to persuade her, she'll never listen.

I've got to escape from here, I want with all my heart, Zack's heart, to keep my promise to my big brother. I just don't think that I can hold up here forever and that only leaves one way to keep my humanity intact. Escape. I'll just have to leave it a while, maybe feign my joining the Manticore team. I'll have to get them to trust me, maybe that will take a little time, but if it makes my chance of escape any greater, I am prepared to try anything.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Please give me feedback about this. For me, this is a very long piece and I am planning to go ahead with chapters. I have a kind of idea about the next one, but I would need suggestions for improvements and anything that doesn't fit. Thank you for reading anyways. Feedback?!?!?!


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